phylogeny, the history of the evolution of a species or group, especially in reference to lines of descent and relationships among broad groups of organisms.

Fundamental to phylogeny is the proposition, universally accepted in the scientific community, that plants or animals of different species descended from common ancestors. The evidence for such relationships, however, is nearly always incomplete, for the vast majority of species that have ever lived are extinct, and relatively few of their remains have been preserved in the fossil record. Most phylogenies therefore are hypotheses and are based on indirect evidence. Different phylogenies often emerge using the same evidence. Nevertheless, there is universal agreement that the tree of life is the result of organic descent from earlier ancestors and that true phylogenies are discoverable, at least in principle.

Taxonomic systems

Taxonomy, the science of classifying organisms, is based on phylogeny. Early taxonomic systems had no theoretical basis; organisms were grouped according to apparent similarity. Since the publication in 1859 of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, however, taxonomy has been based on the accepted propositions of evolutionary descent and relationship.

The data and conclusions of phylogeny show clearly that the tree of life is the product of a historical process of evolution and that degrees of resemblance within and between groups correspond to degrees of relationship by descent from common ancestors. A fully developed phylogeny is essential for the devising of a taxonomy that reflects the natural relationships within the world of living things.

Evidence for specific phylogenies

Biologists who postulate phylogenies derive their most useful evidence from the fields of paleontology, comparative anatomy, comparative embryology, and molecular genetics. Studies of the molecular structure of genes and of the geographic distribution of flora and fauna are also useful. The fossil record is often used to determine the phylogeny of groups containing hard body parts; it is also used to date divergence times of species in phylogenies that have been constructed on the basis of molecular evidence.

Most of the data used in making phylogenetic judgments have come from comparative anatomy and from embryology, although these are rapidly being surpassed by systems constructed using molecular data. In comparing features common to different species, anatomists try to distinguish between homologies, or similarities inherited from a common ancestor, and analogies, or similarities that arise in response to similar habits and living conditions.

Biochemical investigations carried out in the latter half of the 20th century contributed valuable data to phylogenetic studies. By counting differences in the sequence of units that make up protein and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules, researchers have devised a tool for measuring the degree to which different species have diverged since evolving from a common ancestor. Because mitochondrial DNA has very high mutation rates compared with nuclear DNA, it has been useful for establishing relationships among groups that have diverged recently. Essentially, the application of molecular genetics to systematics is similar to the use of radioisotopes in geologic dating: molecules change at different rates, with some, such as mitochondrial DNA, evolving rapidly and others, such as ribosomalRNA, evolving slowly. An important assumption then in using molecules for phylogeny reconstruction is to select the appropriate gene for the age of the taxon under study.

The methodology of phylogenetic work rests on two approaches: phenetics and phylogenetic systematics (cladistics). Phenetics bases classification strictly on similarities among organisms and emphasizes numerical analyses of an observed set of phenotypic characteristics. Cladistics bases classification of a group of species solely on their most recent common ancestor. Cladistics only uses shared derived characters—that is, select characteristics that infer monophyly or those that are expressed in all descendants of a common ancestor. The most direct difference between the two methods is that phenetics classifies species using as many characteristics as possible and arranges them by similarity regardless of any evolutionary relationships.

Click anywhere inside the article to add text or insert superscripts, subscripts, and special characters.
You can also highlight a section and use the tools in this bar to modify existing content:

Add links to related Britannica articles!
You can double-click any word or highlight a word or phrase in the text below and then select an article from the search box.
Or, simply highlight a word or phrase in the article, then enter the article name or term you'd like to link to in the search box below, and select from the list of results.

Note: we do not allow links to external resources in editor.
Please click the Web sites link for this article to add citations for
external Web sites.